Jeff Ireland knows the AFC East has to close Patriots' gap

General manager Jeff Ireland helped the Dolphins win the AFC East in his first season on the job in 2008. Since then, as it's been quite frequently since 2001, it's been all Patriots.

The Patriots have won 10 of the last 12 division titles, including four in a row, and the Pats have won 60 regular-season games since Ireland showed up, which greatly outpaces the Jets (43), Dolphins (38) and Bills (29) over that span. So, yeah, Ireland knows this is a game of catch-up.

"There's a gap, certainly," Ireland said this morning. "They've won the division quite a bit, so we've got to close that gap. I think it's a five-game gap right now (from last season), wins and losses, so that's where the gap is. So we've got to close that gap, and we plan to do our best job, put our best foot forward to getting that done this offseason. Where we can completely close that gap, we've got to get back on the field and close the gap on the field. It doesn't really make a lot of sense to talk about that right now."